News Desk
BEIJING: China Renaissance Holdings saw its shares fell by as much as 50 percent on Friday after the boutique investment bank said its Chairman and Chief Executive Bao Fan had gone missing.
The company said in a market update on Thursday that it had not been able to reach Bao, a leading deal broker in China with clients such as top tech companies Didi and Meituan, in recent days.
Announcement of Bao’s disappearance has raised concerns of a potential Beijing crackdown on business and tech leaders.
China Renaissance added it was not aware of “any information that indicates that Bao’s unavailability is or might be related to the business and/or operations of the group”.
The firm did not specify for how long Bao had been missing. However, Chinese business newswire Caixin reported, citing sources, that staff had not been able to contact him for two days.
China’s top banker
Bao, who is both the chairman and chief executive of China Renaissance, founded the company in 2005 as a boutique advisory investment firm. It has since grown into one of the top financial institutions in China – executing business agreements and mergers between several of the country’s major tech companies.
The bank has served as an advisor for the initial public offerings of JD.com and Kuashou, as well as Didi’s listing at the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.
